Georgetown 2024

[Jldlax]

This was a big win for the Hoyas. They beat a top 20 team on the road in a likely must win to keep chance for an at large bid alive. Richmond was very experienced and has a good attack, yet the defense did very well against them. Banks was on a senior attacker and did very well. Stairs is very solid and took another attacker almost completely out of the mix. Foley is a very good replacement for the injured Tominovich and is very good on loose balls near the goal and Halpern also gets every loose ball. If Tominovich comes back he just adds to a great defensive unit.

As for the offense there is no drop off with the second unit. This group has great speed and Goldberg is a very good passer which makes his invert that much more dangerous. Cesare is great on getting open and has learned to finish. As stated in an earlier post this depth will be important later in the year as it warms up.

[molo]

This is the first time I’ve seen an engineer GT game this year. Is this the first game that Bundy has played at attack, or did they move him earlier? I know he played some attack last year.

[molo]

Entire, not engineer

[Farfromgeneva]

If you ever see a “FarFromGenevaJr” around here can you make sure to keep Joe Cesares stat line from him? He was a high fantasy pick here for my son last year and was buried so I convinced him to drop Cesare and keep F”ng Tye Scott who’s more of a myth than someone in college. He is unaware that unknown Cesare is going off lately and I’d like to not have to disavow his father…

[rolldodge]

This is the first time I’ve seen an engineer GT game this year. Is this the first game that Bundy has played at attack, or did they move him earlier? I know he played some attack last year.

He's been playing attack exclusively for most if not all of the season.

[HGK]

This is the first time I’ve seen an engineer GT game this year. Is this the first game that Bundy has played at attack, or did they move him earlier? I know he played some attack last year.

He's been playing attack exclusively for most if not all of the season.

As Dom said on the telecast “as a young coach i was taught you keep your best offensive threats on the field”. Bundy is an above cage player no question but the idea is to “officially” play him at attack so he never comes off. Can’t argue with that but can see people wondering where he should be considered for year end recognition. Which i am sure Warne is not concerned about. He just wants him playing as much as possible.

[rolldodge]

This is the first time I’ve seen an engineer GT game this year. Is this the first game that Bundy has played at attack, or did they move him earlier? I know he played some attack last year.

He's been playing attack exclusively for most if not all of the season.

As Dom said on the telecast “as a young coach i was taught you keep your best offensive threats on the field”. Bundy is an above cage player no question but the idea is to “officially” play him at attack so he never comes off. Can’t argue with that but can see people wondering where he should be considered for year end recognition. Which i am sure Warne is not concerned about. He just wants him playing as much as possible.

From all reports, Bundy is not worried about it either. He's all about what the team needs to win.

[HGK]

This is the first time I’ve seen an engineer GT game this year. Is this the first game that Bundy has played at attack, or did they move him earlier? I know he played some attack last year.

He's been playing attack exclusively for most if not all of the season.

As Dom said on the telecast “as a young coach i was taught you keep your best offensive threats on the field”. Bundy is an above cage player no question but the idea is to “officially” play him at attack so he never comes off. Can’t argue with that but can see people wondering where he should be considered for year end recognition. Which i am sure Warne is not concerned about. He just wants him playing as much as possible.

From all reports, Bundy is not worried about it either. He's all about what the team needs to win.

+1

[HGK]

Big East play begins with Hoyas starting to really gel as a team. Still, away from winning the BET, they would need to largely take care of business to get an at large bid.

At Providence
Home Marquette
At Denver
Home SJU
At Nova

Assuming hold serve vs Providence, Marquette and SJU, the games at Denver and Villanova are huge. If don’t win BET, probably need to win both of those and make BE final to have a shot. Then it would be a question of how IVY, Big10 and PL play out for the non ACC at large births.

Love the depth of this team and looking forward to a successful BE regular and post season.

LFGH!

[Jldlax]

Big East play begins with Hoyas starting to really gel as a team. Still, away from winning the BET, they would need to largely take care of business to get an at large bid.

At Providence
Home Marquette
At Denver
Home SJU
At Nova

Assuming hold serve vs Providence, Marquette and SJU, the games at Denver and Villanova are huge. If don’t win BET, probably need to win both of those and make BE final to have a shot. Then it would be a question of how IVY, Big10 and PL play out for the non ACC at large births.

Love the depth of this team and looking forward to a successful BE regular and post season.

LFGH!

Denver is improved over last year as is Nova. I agree that GU needs 3/4 wins over this combination of teams is we do not get the AQ. Their fate is their hands. This team lacks the star power of last year but is deeper on offense, has a superb SSD and LSM crew, an underrated close D, and an excellent goalie. They key is focus and no letdowns.

[rolldodge]

A win is a win, but gotta do better to close out teams. That's two games in row they've disappeared in the fourth quarter and another bad performance against the ten man ride. That's not going to cut it against Denver and Villanova.

[HGK]

Flat coming out to start, sloppy throughout. Agree RD. This team can’t get away with this pattern in April and May.

Offensively I truly am baffled at the majority of the offense being run from up top. Look at ND game as template for success - combo of Haley, Carroll and Vardaro creating from behind created the best one on one and off ball opportunities all season.

The positive spin - Ball controlling face offs, offense is balanced. Ten man clear not great but with Moore creating a lot of opportunity in transition I do think Hoyas will be okay there. Banks to Halpert goal was tremendous. Moore zero saves in first half did not let it bother him and had a great 2nd half.

[random observer]

Flat coming out to start, sloppy throughout. Agree RD. This team can’t get away with this pattern in April and May.

Offensively I truly am baffled at the majority of the offense being run from up top. Look at ND game as template for success - combo of Haley, Carroll and Vardaro creating from behind created the best one on one and off ball opportunities all season.

The positive spin - Ball controlling face offs, offense is balanced. Ten man clear not great but with Moore creating a lot of opportunity in transition I do think Hoyas will be okay there. Banks to Halpert goal was tremendous. Moore zero saves in first half did not let it bother him and had a great 2nd half.

Idk, I can't really have any complaints about the offense right now. They've been a top 10 offensive by adjusted efficiency all year long and 15 goals in a comfortable win is nothing to scoff at.

[HGK]

Flat coming out to start, sloppy throughout. Agree RD. This team can’t get away with this pattern in April and May.

Offensively I truly am baffled at the majority of the offense being run from up top. Look at ND game as template for success - combo of Haley, Carroll and Vardaro creating from behind created the best one on one and off ball opportunities all season.

The positive spin - Ball controlling face offs, offense is balanced. Ten man clear not great but with Moore creating a lot of opportunity in transition I do think Hoyas will be okay there. Banks to Halpert goal was tremendous. Moore zero saves in first half did not let it bother him and had a great 2nd half.

Idk, I can't really have any complaints about the offense right now. They've been a top 10 offensive by adjusted efficiency all year long and 15 goals in a comfortable win is nothing to scoff at.

I did a poor job of communicating my thoughts on the offense.

Let me try again - the Hoyas want to play deep into May. Yes the run rate on goals is still strong. Since ND game it has been Brown, HPU, Dartmouth, Richmond and Providence. The offense has put up good numbers for sure. I just feel if they play a top 5 type team down the road that the ND game is the template. Create from X, lots of picks and off ball movement to create more looks in close. Hoyas have great long range shooters no doubt. I just feel the path to success vs a hot goalie and or better teams starts from behind and with more off ball movement than we have seen of late.

[Hoyafan123]

To your point though HGK, typically to get to MDW a team needs an alpha tewaaraton level attackmen/threat from behind the cage. While this team has some great players, what I thought was strategically interesting esp. during the ND game was that Hogan seemed to recognized this team's deficit from behind the goal and tried to make up for it in the aggregate, running a ton of B/L & Inverts with a lot of success. The second line midfield (esp. when Goldberg is in the game) still largely sticks to that playbook which has contributed to their substantial production so far this year. Over the last couple of weeks the team has started to stray away from that playbook (IMHO) largely due to 1. playing weaker competition (thus having more success dodging from up top) and more importantly 2. an increased emphasis on playing fast/in transition. One of negative externalities of running a ton of invert/Big Little is that it does seem to slow the game down/eat into the shot clock at times vs dodging right out of the box and I think the team's focus on playing faster might have caused them to get away bringing a shorty to X/attacking from behind the cage a bit. Ultimately this is fixable - trying to play fast and playing a ton of B/L aren't entirely mutually exclusive propositions - and I think we are just seeing another stage of this team's development as they continue to try and figure out what ratio of playing fast/invert is optimal. After a tough start its been a fun year to watch this team grow ESP. watching the players who haven't gotten serious minutes earlier in their careers starting to contribute.

[rolldodge]

To your point though HGK, typically to get to MDW a team needs an alpha tewaaraton level attackmen/threat from behind the cage. While this team has some great players, what I thought was strategically interesting esp. during the ND game was that Hogan seemed to recognized this team's deficit from behind the goal and tried to make up for it in the aggregate, running a ton of B/L & Inverts with a lot of success. The second line midfield (esp. when Goldberg is in the game) still largely sticks to that playbook which has contributed to their substantial production so far this year. Over the last couple of weeks the team has started to stray away from that playbook (IMHO) largely due to 1. playing weaker competition (thus having more success dodging from up top) and more importantly 2. an increased emphasis on playing fast/in transition. One of negative externalities of running a ton of invert/Big Little is that it does seem to slow the game down/eat into the shot clock at times vs dodging right out of the box and I think the team's focus on playing faster might have caused them to get away bringing a shorty to X/attacking from behind the cage a bit. Ultimately this is fixable - trying to play fast and playing a ton of B/L aren't entirely mutually exclusive propositions - and I think we are just seeing another stage of this team's development as they continue to try and figure out what ratio of playing fast/invert is optimal. After a tough start its been a fun year to watch this team grow ESP. watching the players who haven't gotten serious minutes earlier in their careers starting to contribute.

Good analysis. Hopefully as we get into April and May they will be able to switch between these modes at will. It would have been nice to see the deliberate slow-down mode in the fourth quarters of the past two games. While the offense has been producing, I think if playing up to their potential those games should have been in the 17-20 goal range.

[Hoyafan123]

Agreed RD. The deliberate slowdown in the 4th quarter of the last two games has been giving me 2018 Johns Hopkins and 2022 Delaware 1st round NCAA PTSD. I understand the general strategy but you can still play smart and still try and keep pushing the pedal to the medal

[Jldlax]

I agree that the stretch from High Point through Marquette gives the team a chance to develop beyond the slower, invert style that worked well vs. ND.This stretch allows for introducing a faster pace including more fast breaks, and to revisit the up top/wing attack approach. The stretch after Marquette and SJU will optimally involve four games vs. Denver and Nova, and are the key to making the NCAAs and success there. GU will need varying styles to win after this less challenging stretch as top teams can game plan for a single style like the grind it out/invert mode. Also, Vardaro has broken through, Crogan has been scoring and the next piece hopefully will be some goals for Wray.

[rolldodge]

I agree that the stretch from High Point through Marquette gives the team a chance to develop beyond the slower, invert style that worked well vs. ND.This stretch allows for introducing a faster pace including more fast breaks, and to revisit the up top/wing attack approach. The stretch after Marquette and SJU will optimally involve four games vs. Denver and Nova, and are the key to making the NCAAs and success there. GU will need varying styles to win after this less challenging stretch as top teams can game plan for a single style like the grind it out/invert mode. Also, Vardaro has broken through, Crogan has been scoring and the next piece hopefully will be some goals for Wray.

Exactly. They should be able to dictate tempo as appropriate to the conditions of the game. If they are up by 5 or 6 goals, it makes sense to play deliberate offense, but they should still be able to score goals.

And agree that getting Wray back involved would be great. He clearly has a higher ceiling.

It’s fantastic that the team is at the point where we are able to have this nuanced discussion about potential improvements. The pieces are there. Go Hoyas!

[HGK]

Should be a great atmosphere this weekend vs Marquette. Alumni weekend, honoring the 1999 Final Four team and weather actually looks to be good!

In terms of the game - Marquette has had an uneven year so far and will be highly motivated coming off the SJU loss. This series has had a lot of very close games, last year’s OT game in Milwaukee has been more the norm than exception in how tight these games have been. In the last 10 meetings, the Hoyas are 6-4 vs Marquette with better records against every other BE team. Hoyas for example are 7-3 vs Denver in last 10. Marquette will come to play for sure. Looking forward to a great weekend and a great game.